The Yellow River basin is the main birthplace of Chinese civilization,and the agricultural civilization which conceived and grew up here has a far-reaching impact on China's ancient economy,politics and culture.Climate,as the main resource in agri-cultural production,is undoubtedly one of the basic elements of agricultural civilization.As people growing up on the banks of the Yellow River,we should pay close attention to the climate change in the Yellow River basin and its relationship with the e-volution of agricultural civilization.The study of the relationship between climate change and the evolution of agricultural civili-zation in the ancient Yellow River basin is not only a geographical survey,but also a requirement of the realistic development.Climate change is an important factor affecting agricultural production,but its mechanism is very complicated.The cold and dry climate and natural disasters in the Wei and Jin Dynasties on the one hand severely impacted the agricultural production,and on the other hand promoted the construction of water conservancy facilities and the improvement of agricultural technolo-gy.As a result,the grain output in the Wei and Jin Dynasties not only did not decrease due to the decrease of temperature and precipitation,but also exceeded that in the Han Dynasty.During the early Tang Dynasty,the climate in the Yellow River Basin was warm and humid,but it gradually transitioned to colder and drier conditions in the mid to late Tang period.These climate changes influenced the cultivation and consumption of melons.When the climate conditions were favorable for melon growth,the court established specialized institutions to explore and develop cultivation techniques,including breeding early ripening va-rieties.Conversely,when the climate was unfavorable,the rarity of melons increased,and literati imbued them with cultural significance.Throughout the Tang Dynasty,melons underwent a transition from being rare to common and then back to rare a-gain.From the 10th to the 13th century,as the climate in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River changed from a warm period to a cold period,the rice cultivation area shifted from expansion to contraction.The confrontation between the Song,Liao and Jin regimes and the political and military policies of each regime also promoted or restricted the cultivation of rice.In other words,the evolution of rice farming areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River from the 10th to the 13th centuries is a historical agricultural landscape shaped by nature and man.The climate of the Yellow River Basin in the early Yuan Dynasty was warm and suitable.But it entered a cold period in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty,and the sudden drop in temperature significantly reduced the production efficiency of thermophilic economic crops.In the Yuan Dynasty,the planting structure of economic crops in the Yellow River Basin also changed,and cotton was widely planted in the Yellow River Basin.The promotion of cotton planting in the Yellow River Basin has significantly changed the planting structure of original e-conomic crops.Under the influence of Little Ice Age,the climate of Ming and Qing Dynasties was cold.Climate cooling affect-ed the survival of vegetation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.Because of its cold-resistant,easy to survive,fast growth and other characteristics,willow is an important material in agriculture and forestry planting,urban beautification,river defense construction and so on,and is deeply valued by the society.Willow became the main vegetation landscape in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
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